Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Madness Is Expecting A Different Outcome

Cheating is big business. We need to recognize that so long as we leave all of life up to one high stakes test we're going to have to live with cheating. Or else we can give up on the testing and actually evaluate and assess our students, employees or potential hires in a different way. Instead of the Bar Exam, read law and clerk with a lawyer as an apprentice. Eventually your mentor would give you a chance to speak in court and as you begin to win cases or at least impress judges you can get your JD. Perhaps instead of the Bar a series of orals administered by practicing judges, lawyers and members of the comminity after a lengthy clerkship would provide better assesment. Imagine lawyers who practice law because they were actually good. It's so much better then the three year cram school method that churns out lawyers for the sake of collecting tuition.

The same could be said for any other profession. Instead of suffering under some MCSE fuck who doesn't know that the Macintosh actually has a better command line interface than Windows the IT guy wouldn't need certification but have a portfolio of programs, publications and patents that employers and clients can inspect when making hiring decisions. At least then I wouldn't have to hear about how unsecure my computer is because it has a GUI interface but the Windows XP Dell POS Boxen the school committee has saddled me with is OK because Microsoft Windows is based on NT which is Unix clone. If the Mac isn't Unix, explain /private/var/cron/tabs

Anyway, if we leave all of life up to those who can pass a test we're ruled by those who may only have enough talent in them to pass one test. How fucked would we be if every one cheated on that test. Cheating isn't going away.

2 Comments:

I would posit a question about this topic that I would like you to answer but I'm a bit too "Montuckey Drunk" to formulate it in the best possible manner.

Something about the sheer volume of people alive today and some form of streamlining the process of "shoehorning" them into the existing systems (that I think were largely based on the system you describe... apprentice proves him/herself after learning the craft)

Drunk as I am, I think that it's now more a population issue than it is anything else.